CHINA AND EUROPE

Relations between China and Europe have traveled a fluctuant course since 1949. To a significant extent, China's relations with both Eastern and Western Europe have been a function of its broader pattern of relations with the Soviet Union and the United States. Yet, in both cases, independent factors have served to sustain and strain ties. This article examines the course and dynamics of these relationships over the past four decades. Sino-European relations today are businesslike yet fragile-a fragility that the receding Cold War, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, and the West European common market of 1992 will all serve to intensify.